Places I've Been
by StelenaEpicBeauty
Summary: A dark and twisty Beauty and the Beast tale. Vincent slowly reveals details about himself and the so-called monster he used to be. Will his history scare away even the brave Catherine?
1. Preface

**Places I've Been**

_**So this in AU in that the stuff we saw on tonight's episode with Vincent having a fiancée hasn't happened here. This is mature for adult themes and content. Let me know if I should continue!**_

**Preface**

His big, powerful hands fisted in her hair as if by their own volition. She arched back and allowed him more access to her throat. He nibbled on the sensitive flesh of her neck and she murmured a guttural, unintelligible sound born of pure pleasure. They had been doing this for weeks now, touching, teasing, exploring, unable to get enough of each other but as his hand went to cup her pert right breast, he was aware somewhere in the back of his mind that they were moving into truly dangerous territory this time. He didn't want to stop; he wanted her with a force and passion he never could have imagined in his wildest fantasies.

He realized then with a shudder of desire that he loved her. Maybe he always had and that was the most dangerous thing for her of all.

_He was lethal to her._

All those thoughts suddenly entered his mind and made him feel ill. His hand slackened on her breast and eventually fell away. He then sat there for a moment as she watched him with a mixture of confusion and hurt in her gorgeous, dark eyes.

"Vincent?" She said. His name on her tongue … it made him wish for things that could never be. What was he thinking coming here? What was he thinking touching her and promising her things he could never begin to deliver on.

"Vincent?" She said again. It sounded like a little whisper escaping her perfect, sensuous lips.

This time he responded by jumping to his feet and sailing clear to the other side of the room. She looked so hurt in that moment. She had always worked so hard to maintain an exterior of bravery and strength but in that moment he thought he saw it begin to crumble. And he hated himself even more for bringing her to that place.

"What is it?" She asked as her hands hovered seemingly absent-mindedly on the buttons of her blouse he had half worked open already.

He tore his eyes away from her. "I can't do this."

"You can't make love to me? Vincent, I'm ready. I feel like you are too. We _both_ are."

"I – I'm not. I never will be."

Catherine nodded. _Oh the hurt in her eyes._ He knew he had to say something even if he mangled it. "It's not you, Catherine."

"Oh. The old 'it's not you, it's me' line," Catherine murmured.

"Catherine," he said. "It _is_ me! You think you know everything about me but you don't. I don't ever want to hurt you. _Ever."_

She took a step closer to her and he retracted more into the shadows. "You won't hurt me, Vincent. I know exactly who you are. You're a good man."

"That's just it! I'm not a man, Catherine!" He shouted. "I am a monster."

"That's not true," Catherine said. "You are so much more than you ever give yourself credit for being. You are beautiful and you are kind and –"

He held up a hand to stop her. "I am _none_ of those things. I am a fucking genetic mutation and I've done things –" He balled his hands into fists at his sides.

"I know what you've done and I'm not afraid of you. I told you once that the night you saved me in the woods, that I wasn't afraid of you, that I knew you would never hurt me, and I meant it."

"You_ should_ be afraid of me, Catherine, you should be. You haven't even begun to scratch the surface on where I've been and what I've done, the way I've hurt people…"

She moved a step closer to him, reaching out to him, and he could smell her perfume and her sex and that uniquely beautiful Catherine scent so strong in his nostrils that it drove him insane. He knew any minute he was going to come undone and that it would not be pretty. So he did the only thing he could.

He vaulted from her open window and took off like a shot in the night.

_He could hear her crying out his name long after he was blocks and blocks away._

TBC


	2. Chapter 1

_**Thanks for all the reviews thus far. This fic is going to be extremely angsty so hold on tight!**_

**Chapter 1**

"What do we have?" Catherine asked as she strode into the First National Bank the next morning. She was exhausted from a sleepless night wondering what the hell to do about Vincent. She knew she loved him, that much was obvious to her. She had wanted him to make love to her so badly. She had let her walls crumble for him, and he had actually left her. She knew he was afraid of hurting her but she also knew that he never would. He was gentle and he was kind and honorable…

Tess turned to look at Catherine with a somber expression on her face. "Female, twenty-seven, identified as one Anna Jackson. She's a manager here according to the teller who found her this morning and called us in. She has all kinds of bruises and contusions and according to Evan, she was very likely raped."

Catherine felt sick to her stomach as she slipped on a pair of gloves and peeled back the white sheet. The woman was a wreck, beaten badly. Her brown eyes were frozen in a state of petrified horror and Catherine slowly reached out and pushed down her eyelids. She sighed as her eyes travelled to the woman's shapely lower body. Her skirt had been savagely ripped from her body, as well as her blouse. Her bra was half dangling off of her, looking as if it had been shredded almost to pieces.

Catherine pulled back up the sheet. She had seen many raped and murdered victims but something inside of her was screaming that this was going to have more far-reaching consequences than ordinarily. Somehow it was going to touch her life. She didn't know why she felt that but she did.

"Who's the teller who found her?" Catherine asked Tess.

"He's taking to Joe now," Tess said, pointing across the room where a man stood conversing with their commanding officer. The man looked decidedly shaken and his light green eyes were watery. He, Catherine decided, had a personal stake in all of this.

Tess looked at Catherine. "Should we got chat him up?"

Catherine nodded. "Yeah, we should."

The two women approached the teller. "Mr. Russell?" Tess said. "This is my partner, Catherine Chandler; we have some questions for you too."

"I don't know anything," he insisted. "As I told him –" he gestured to Joe – "I haven't seen Anna since last night when I punched out my time card and went home."

Catherine nodded, looking into his eyes, or trying to as they were darting every which way. "Mr. Russell-"

"Damien."

"Alright, Damien," Catherine said. "Did you and Anna have a personal relationship?"

"Do you mean were we boyfriend and girlfriend?" Damien asked, running a hand through his shock of white blonde hair.

"Yes. Were you lovers?"

"We were," Damien said. "Up until last week anyway. She broke up with me suddenly. She wouldn't tell me why. She just … avoided me a lot afterwards."

Tess eyed Catherine and then looked at Damien. "Were you angry about the breakup?"

Damien nodded. "Well, yes. I loved her. I still love her. You can't imagine how it feels to walk in and find the person you loved more than anything in the world …" His voice wavered. "Dead. Apparently violated in the worst way."

Catherine nodded. "I am sorry for you loss but can I ask you where you were last night?"

"I was home," Damien answered. "But you're not … Wait, why? You can't seriously be thinking I had anything to do with this. I loved Anna."

"Yes and you were pissed she didn't love you back anymore, right?" Tess said, playing bad cop.

Damien shook his head. "I didn't hurt her. I never would. She was so special to me."

"Would you submit to a DNA test, Damien?" Catherine asked. "That's the fastest way to eliminate you as a suspect."

Damien nodded. "Yeah, sure, I'll do anything I have to do to prove I didn't hurt Anna. She was my everything."

Tess nodded. "So you keep saying…"

XoXoXo

Catherine walked into the lab sometime later to find Evan working on their vic. She felt very sad as she looked at the woman's bluish appearance and all of her vicious bruises which were more pronounced in the bright light of the morgue.

"Catherine," Evan greeted her with a somber smile.

"Evan," she returned. "What do you have for me?"

"Well for starters, that DNA I ran on our vic's ex maybe entirely useless."

"Why?"

Evan sighed. "I found no semen, just traces of latex."

"So the sonuvabitch who did this wore a condom," Catherine said. "He came prepared."

"Yes," Evan said. "Time of death has been narrowed down to between one and two a.m."

"I wonder what she was doing at the bank so late. There was also no sign of forced entry so I am guessing she knew her killer. She invited him in, maybe."

"Well the boyfriend – ex-boyfriend … He had a key I am betting due to the fact he worked there."

"Good point. I am going to check up on who all had access to the bank after hours, go over the employee records…" She looked at Evan. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

Catherine walked upstairs then. There had been latent fingerprints found near the body. Naturally those surfaces were touched hundreds of times a day but maybe something would stand out to her.

XoXoXo

Catherine was combing through CODIS, going through what must have been thousands of prints. But one set she recognized right away. Vincent's name came up on the screen. She swallowed hard as she quickly closed the screen. No one needed to know he was still alive or that he had been there sometime recently, but naturally she had to call JT and ask him to put her in contact with his buddy. She had to find out what, if anything, Vincent knew about the crime.

She turned to look at Tess who was approaching her. "Anything new?"

Tess shook her head. "Evan pointed out she had scars from a cesarean section but I don't recall there being any child mentioned by anyone…"

Catherine nodded. "Interesting… You should look into that while I follow up on some other leads." She got to her feet. "I'll be back in a few hours."

"You and your cryptic talk and disappearing act," Tess said. "But you always get the job done so I can't complain, can I?"

Catherine offered Tess a weak smile and hurried for the exit. She only hoped she could solve this crime too and that it wouldn't touch Vincent in any way.

XoXoXo

Catherine called JT and asked him to have Vincent meet her at the old train tracks downtown. They needed time alone where they couldn't be interrupted. She sensed whatever Vincent would say would change her life forever.

JT grumbled incessantly but finally agreed to tell Vincent. When Catherine pulled her Jeep up into the alcove under the railway, Vincent was there already, waiting and pacing.

Catherine climbed out of the Jeep and moved over to him. He looked so upset, she could see that easily enough. He was distraught about something.

He turned around to face her. "Catherine…"

"Vincent, hi." It was not what she wished to say but could she really be so pathetic as to ask him why he couldn't love her the way she already did him?

No. She couldn't. And this meeting was business although Vincent didn't seem to think so at first.

"If this is about last night …"

"No, it's not," Catherine said, looking away from him for a long moment. When she turned back to face him, she hoped her expression showed none of the feelings he evoked in her. She would be anything for him but pathetic.

"Then this is about Anna."

"Anna? Anna _Jackson_ you mean?"

Vincent nodded. "Yeah."

"You're following another one of my cases, I see. You tried to save her, didn't you?"

Vincent nodded. "I tried. It was the least I could do after …"

"After what?"

"It's a long story, Catherine." He turned away from her.

"I've got time," Catherine said. "Talk to me. Tell me how you knew Anna Jackson. Please don't leave anything out."

Vincent nodded. "I won't. I swear."

TBC


End file.
